Shaun Vs the Slenderman
by appa-appa-away
Summary: Shaun is curious. He's heard the stories about the faceless man who lives behind the fenced-off abandoned testing facility. But more than anything, he wants to find out what's on those pages. A random and sort of funny story I wrote on request for a mate.


****Author's Note: This is a crappy but apparently funny little something I wrote for one of my mates on request. He asked me to do my take on an encounter between himself and the Slenderman, after I introduced him to the Slender game a few months ago. A few facts about my friend so that you understand: his name is Shaun, he doesn't give a poo about much, and despite how damn skinny he is he eats a buttload of lollies and always has a bag with him. He's already read it and loved it so I hope someone else out there will too. Enjoy my crappy writings!

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**Shaun Vs the Slenderman**

The night air was cold and thick with a blanket of low-hanging fog. Shaun pushed on through the darkness in an uphill climb towards his first destination; the looming fence which closed off an abandoned testing facility from public access. The building was hidden somewhere within the premises, hidden amongst the trees and dirt walking tracks which had been overgrown from years of disuse.

The fence was high and Shaun was already sore from the steep incline of the hill. Thankfully, once over the fence, the ground appeared to flatten, some places even taking a downhill turn. He took a moment to catch his breath as he looked up at the fence, searching for a gap in the lacing barbed wire up the top. Despite the years of neglect, it there was no gap, though he quickly located a spot where it had come loose and was dangling in a loop a few feet from the fence, like a belt around an invisible belly. That's where Shaun climbed the fence, and manoeuvring cautiously, slipped through the belt of barbed wire to the stable ground.

Stepping away from the fence, he dug his hands into the pockets of his jacket. With one, he extracted a torch and clicked it on, swinging its light around his surroundings slowly. With the other hand, he pulled a handful of sour worms from their packet and shoved them in his mouth. He chewed slowly has he stepped away from the fence, further into the trees. A dirt track was already beneath his feet and he took this for a good sign.

The path quickly came to a T, and he swung left with little more than a glance the other way for safe measure. Shining his torch ahead of him, he could see his second destination: a giant tree. He approached without caution; if the stories he'd heard were right, he shouldn't have been noticed by anything dangerous just yet. But he kept his eyes peeled for what he wanted to find. Sure enough, there it was; a small page, as if ripped from a small notebook, pinned to the tree trunk. He looked at it for a moment before reaching for it. "Leave me alone," he whispered into the night air, reading straight from the page. A stick figure was vaguely sketched to one side of the page. He pulled the note from the tree and shoved it in his pocket.

That's when the first sign of danger showed itself. Or perhaps it was just a coincidence. A sharp wind cut through the trees and left a bitter chill in the air. The rustling of leaves was eerie and indistinguishable from what could have been twigs snapping underfoot.

It didn't bother Shaun much. If what he'd heard was true, he was moving fast enough not to be in any danger. Yet.

From the pocket on the inside of his jacket, he pulled a crumpled piece of paper – a supposed map of the premises – and another handful of sour worms. While he chewed, he flicked the torch off and continued to follow the path. There was no point wasting battery when he had enough of an idea where he was going. Keeping a consistent pace – slow enough not to get tired, but fast enough not to let _him_ catch up too soon – he followed the dirt track around a bend and took a guess at where his next destination was. Sure enough, after some stumbling through undergrowth and tightly grown together trees, he located an abandoned truck and a shipping container. Away from the path, every sound behind him sounded threatening, but Shaun shook it off. He hadn't moved slow enough to be in any danger yet. Turning the torch on, he skirted around the truck. Nothing. He searched the walls of the shipping container. Still nothing. With a sound of annoyance, he moved back towards the path, making sure to always be going towards his next destination the same time.

He'd hardly made it back onto the path when the next truck came into sight, practically on the path in front of him. It was bigger than the first truck; this one was a semi, an eighteen-wheeler with a menacing blue silhouette in the darkness. He swung the torch over the sides of the vehicle until he found the next page. It was an image of a faceless man in a suit, roughly scribbled with the word 'NO' scrawled down both sides of the page, over and over again. 'NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO'.

He pulled it from the side of the truck and shoved it into his pocket. The torch flickered. Shaun swung around and shone the light onto the path behind him, but the spotlight revealed nothing of significance. He switched it off and turned back to the path ahead.

With two notes found, Shaun new that he could expect to see company soon, especially if he wasn't fast on his feet, or careful. There was the option to continue forward or turn left as he moved up the path, and he quickly pulled the map out of his jacket and flicked the torch on. The path ahead would lead him to both a tunnel and the main building, where testing had once been conducted. But if he went into the tunnel from the main path, he'd have to double back to get to the building next. Doubling back was risky.

Shaun chose to turn left onto a path which would take him to the far end of the tunnel. He'd be able to walk right through it, pick up the next note and reconnect with the main road to the building without doubling back on himself. However, the tunnel was a flunk. He shone the torch up and down the walls to find nothing. As he got to the end of the tunnel and faced out to the main road, he felt a prickling sensation on his back, as if somebody was watching him. Torch in hand he swung around, and caught a glimpse of a silhouette standing tall and menacingly at the other end. He didn't wait another moment before turning onto the main road and sprinting towards his next destination.

In the cold, it was hard to breathe. Shaun was panting heavily by the time the building came into sight and he had to slow back to a walk. He wasn't ready for a Game Over yet, so as he approached the entrance of the building, he glanced back over his shoulder with the torch skimming the tree-line. He saw nothing.

Inside the building was like walking into a coffin. A cold, white, tiled coffin with doors that had been ripped from their hinges or otherwise broken. Shaun's footsteps echoed and his breath sounded louder than it had outside. He peered carefully into each room as he passed it, not wanted to miss something and have to double back too far. He passed the passage that lead to the exit, but still had not found the next note. There were more rooms ahead of him and the note could be in one of them. It was a calculated risk. If he moved fast enough, he could get back to the exit before _he_ caught up. With that in mind, he ran to the next door and looked inside. Nothing. He ran to the next room. Still nothing. Around a corner, and into the next room. Bingo. He read the note quickly, the idea of being cornered urging him to get out. 'DON'T LOOK… OR IT TAKES YOU' was the message on the page, with a picture of the silhouette sketched in the bottom right corner. He shoved it in his pocket and started to double back. Coming back around the corner was nerve-wracking, but Shaun got through safely.

When he came to the corridor to the exit, he ran and flew out into the night, turning his torch off for a moment. The rows of cylindrical tanks were rusty and large. He searched in the dark for the next note, trying not to look back at the building. It was found on the far end of one of the tanks, forcing him to face the exit he'd used. The page had the words 'HELP ME' scrawled in large letters, as if the paper was frightened. Shaun looked up from the piece of paper as he shoved it in his jacket pocket along with the other three. He could see the silhouette standing in the doorway of the building, watching him. Even without the torchlight he could make out the featureless face.

But it wasn't Game Over yet. Not even close. He walked backwards, keeping his eyes fixed on the dark silhouette until he was well into the trees again. He didn't stick to the path this time. He ran for a little, just to put some extra distance between him and his follower. Shaun wasn't afraid; he just wanted to get the next note, before his pursuer got him.

The pillars appeared out of nowhere, bundled together as they rose up from the ground in a clearing before him. Fingers crossed, he flicked the torch on and began his search. It didn't take long to find the next note. This time it was a picture of the silhouette, his featureless face looking out of the paper and the word 'FOLLOWS' written in terrified letters. _Five notes,_ Shaun thought to himself. _Things are close to getting interesting now._ He exchanged the note for a handful of sour-worms in his pockets and reached back in for a second handful as he found the path and turned right. He consulted the map briefly to be sure: he was going towards the cross-wall. It wasn't long before the feeling of being watched returned to him, and he swung around with his torch to place the spook in the spotlight. The faceless man stood closer than Shaun had expected, and he accidentally swallowed a sour-worm without chewing properly. His torch began to flicker violently.

Thinking fast, Shaun began to run backwards. The Slenderman remained still, staring at him without eyes as the torch stopped flickering so violently. Shaun cut away from the path and once again into the trees, hoping to get to the next note both faster and without being 'taken', or so the stories he'd heard suggested. He wanted to know what all these pages said. With three to go, he knew he was getting close to his goal.

He caught himself from stumbling as he entered the clearing. He'd walked backwards the whole time without meaning to. The cross-wall stood tall behind him and he flicked the torch off again until he found the next page. 'CAN'T RUN' was the next message.

"You'll have to take my legs before that becomes true, Slendy!" he shouted with a grin. And just to send the message home, he began to run, slowly edging closer to the path again until he finally emerged from the tree-line, already reasonably close to his next destination. He passed a turn-off through which he could see the cylindrical gas tanks where he'd found the fourth note. He paused for a moment, needing to catch his breath. In a struggle to find more energy, he reached into his pocket and extracted more sour-worms. The packet was starting to feel terribly light in his pocket and he hoped he'd have enough to last him the rest of the journey.

Suddenly there was a sound, and Shaun knew he'd just made his time on the premises harder. "I shouldn't have stopped," he said, facing along the path ahead of him only to see the Slenderman standing before him, arms stretching down towards his knees. "You'll need to get a bit closer than that if you want me," Shaun joked, throwing himself towards the other side of the path and back into the trees. He turned the torch off so that the flickering would stop. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw nothing. _Two pages to go… and now he can teleport. Since when?_ He hadn't heard that one in the stories.

'ALWAYS WATCHES NO EYES' was the next message he read as he found the note amongst the cluster of rocks that had been his next stop. A sudden sound announced that he was about to encounter his follower again and sure enough the Slenderman appeared, just meters away from him. His featureless face looked straight into Shaun's while he shoved the seventh note into his pocket. _So close…_ he thought regretfully as he thought of the way the faceless man was standing between him and the next note.

The Slenderman flickered and appeared again an inch closer. Shaun took a step back and leaned against one of the large rocks, reaching a hand slowly into his jacket. "Hi, I'm Shaun," he said casually. His voice was just as cheerful as it was when he greeted his friends. The tall man in the suit tilted his head, seemingly curious and confused. Shaun pulled the packet of sour-worms out of his pocket. He'd already eaten more than half, and could easily have finished the rest without any help, but then he thought, what the heck. "Want a lolly?" he offered the bag to the Slenderman, who tilted his head the other way. "Did I miss one of the pages or is the last one really somewhere on the big rusty thing all the way back near the place I jumped the fence?" Shaun pulled out the vague map and showed the Slenderman. The Slenderman took the map and studied it curiously and then gave it back, nodding and pointing to the rusty block further down the path. "Awesome. You _deserve_ a lolly now," Shaun said, grinning and holding the sour-worms up again.

Slenderman studied the packet of sour-worms curiously, bringing his featureless face closer as if to sniff the wrapping. Then he stuck a long-fingered hand into the bag and pulled out one of the sugary sweets. He looked back up at Shaun. Shaun grabbed a whole handful of lollies out of the bag and shoved them into his mouth. The Slenderman watched, then, looking down at the sour-worm in his own palm, pressed it against his face. It was still in his hand when he moved it away and he continued to look down at it, confused.

Shaun cleared his throat. "You've got a bit of sugar on your, um…" He pointed to the area around his own mouth before the Slenderman raised the other hand to wipe away the residue. "So… wanna come get the eighth page with me?"

They walked along the path together. Shaun had tried to use the torch, but it wouldn't stop flickering while his new friend was so close by. They reached the rusty thing in no time and quickly located the final note in the dark. There was no writing, which Shaun was glad about, seeing as his torch was useless. But in the dark, he could see the outline of the picture: a stick-figure drawing of the Slenderman standing in amongst the trees. Shaun turned to the Slenderman. "So, are you the one who puts these notes around?" The tall, faceless man nodded. "You do all the drawings yourself?" Another nod. "Nice. You draw your face perfectly. It's a great likeness," he said, holding the eighth note up to compare. Slenderman stared at him without eyes, unblinking… because he doesn't have eyes. "Well, it was real nice meeting ya. I think it's time for me to go home now."

Slenderman followed him back to the fence where he'd originally climbed onto the premises. "So what's the story with this place anyway? Why are you in here all on your lonesome?" The Slenderman looked around as if searching for an answer and then shrugged. "Were you the experiement-gone-wrong that caused the nerds to shut this place down?" He nodded. "Well, I don't think you're so bad. I'll bet the only reason you follow people around is because you're lonely, right?" Slenderman nodded enthusiastically. Shaun got the feeling that he was thinking something along the lines of _Finally! Somebody who understands!_ "Yeah, people are stupid. They get scared for nothing. I'll admit, I did too at first. But then I thought, what's the worst you could possibly do? Nothing worse than any other person I might run into, right?" Another nod from Slenderman. "Well, maybe I'll come visit some time."

With that, Shaun hoisted himself back over the fence, narrowly avoiding the barbed wire. From the other side of the fence, he gave a happy wave and began his downhill climb towards town. Behind him, on the other side of the fence, Slenderman tired to eat the sour-worm again, without a mouth.

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Author's Note: I like the part where the Slenderman tried to eat the lollies. Flamers go to hell, but review and tell me what you thought if you're not a flamer. I know it's crappy, if you didn't pick that up from me telling you so in the author's note at the start, but if you're gonna sook about it now then that's your own problem for reading it despite the warning. I thought it was cute anyway. Ta!


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